This Week in Global Mobile | November 19, 2010

At times it's difficult to keep pace with the latest global mobile developments. I hope this selection of news stories from the past week will help you navigate the growing global network of connectivity:

  • Global fixed broadband subscribers increased by 1.4% to 463 million between Q2 and Q3, reports ABI Research.
  • Americans’ concerns over their privacy on social networking sites increased over the past year, Forrester Research reported last week.
  • Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced a new messaging service which combines e-mail, SMS, and instant messenger using a comprehensive “@facebook.com” account.
  • Just over two-thirds (65%) of Internet users world-wide have fallen victim to cybercrimes such as credit card fraud, according to the Norton Cybercrime Report.
  • At this week’s Web 2.0 Summit, Google C.E.O. Eric Schmidt announced that future releases of Android will support Near Field Communications, a protocol which enables smart phones to communicate and exchange data with each other. BlackBerry’s maker RIM followed with a similar announcement the next day.
  • Smart phone sales will outnumber those of personal and laptop computers by 2012, with  more than 450 million units sold, reports Morgan Stanley.
  • Infodev awarded six grants to the winners of its Creating Sustainable Businesses context, which challenged applicants to use mobile social media to improve their economies.
  • The U.K. commissioner for communications rejected the idea of instituting net neutrality rules on the country’s Internet service providers.
  • On Wednesday the Urgent Communications Journal unveiled a new emergency broadcast system which uses mobile technologies such as SMS to deliver urgent news to the public.